“My son was everything to me!” a young Harlem mother sobbed in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday before being sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the 2-year-old boy’s bludgeoning murder.

Zahira Matos was only 20 years old and already the mother of three in 2004, when her drunken lesbian lover beat Yovany Tellez to a slow death in their roach- and mice-infested apartment.

The case made front-page news at the time, given the severity of the injuries and Matos’ claim that she was herself the victim of a violent, controlling girlfriend.

But while Matos did not deal the fatal blows, she is still a murderer because she did nothing – except drink St. Ides beers and watch television – as her son slowly bled to death in the couple’s bed, a jury had found in February. The other woman, Carmen Molina, is serving 15 years on a murder plea deal.

“Even the most savage of wild animals will care for their offspring,” Assistant District Attorney Kerry O’Connell told the judge, noting that the boy had been beaten by both women over the course of months.

Matos knew her son was gravely injured, but did nothing, said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley.

To save Yovany’s life, he added, “All it would have taken was a phone call.”